The 650 people at the 2016 Global Leadership Conference this weekend were the recipients of a keynote briefing from a cult leader. At least, a former one: now Ramez Naam is just a Burner, and award-winning science fiction author.

Image: rameznaam.com

Participants in the 2016 GLC were treated Saturday morning to a visit by Ramez Naam, celebrated science fiction author, former elected fake-cult leader from the Church of Mez, and longtime Burner.

Mez’s talk challenged Burners and Burner-like humans to take on their civic responsibility as explorers and engineers of inner and outer space. “We are the ones that we have been waiting for,” Mez said.

Mez began by setting the record straight: “I just want to say I am no longer a cult leader. The cult was declared ‘morally bankrupt’,” Mez reassured us. He’s concentrating on his other exploits these days: The author of the renowned Nexus trilogy was recently awarded a Philip K. Dick award for his novel, Apex, so people are constantly congratulating him on his Dick now.

Mez’s first Burn was in ’97, and after his friends gave him a cult for his birthday, he got in pretty deep. He shared that his experiences on playa opened him up to other people in big ways, helping him overcome interpersonal anxieties and reach out to strangers in that quintessentially Burner way. Burning Man breaks down those boundaries, and Mez says this — combined with an interest in the headiest science and technology — is what has motivated him to bridge the inner and outer worlds through writing sci-fi.

Most sci-fi is about outer space, but Mez prefers to write about inner space, somewhere we all boldly go. Just like everyone else in the room at the GLC, Mez has done a great deal of inner space exploration at Burning Man events, producing insights equally valuable in sci-fi and in reality… inner and outer space are intimately connected, and human inventions are constantly widening the bandwidth of that connection. It’s no surprise that, in Mez’s view, those who explore inner space most thoroughly are the ones who drive innovation. Yes, that’s us.

Ramez is a former Microsoft employee who helped create Internet Explorer and Outlook. As well as the Philip K Dick award, Ramez has won the H G Wells award for Contributions to Transhumanism. Yes, Burning Man’s Global Leaders are being briefed on transhumanism by a cult leader. Welcome to Da Vinci’s Workshop, let us tinker with your brain…

His cult, the Church of Mez, was created after his first trip to Burning Man in 1997, and ignited the Transhumanist cult revolution.

SEATTLE, Washington–February 2, 2003–Church of Mez Adjusts Earnings, Files Chapter 11. The Church of Mez today announces its intention to file an adjusted earning statement and that it has filed for protection from its debtors under chapter 11.

“Clearly, we have been morally bankrupt from the start,” said the former CEO Mez from atop a pile of chocolate covered thai hookers. “But we’ve been hiding the fact that the Church of Mez has actually been making money for years. I mean buying Oracle was just supposed to be a joke, one look at PL/SQL and we figured those jackasses would never be worth anything. We tried to hide it, but you can only burn cash in your back yard for so long before the neighbors start to talk … Larry, you bitch, find me more hookers, these ones are lazy.“

“It was just one questionable investment after another,” admitted the Church CFO. “Amazon in the mid 90’s… who the hell would want to buy books on the internet? Then we started to make money on them, finally decided to sell them short in 2000, well that was a bad idea too and we had to hide another 7 billion in the back of the bus. Our fucking accountant even managed to earn us a tax credit for the hundred thousand pairs of blinky devil horns we used at burningman. And then we thought that being awarded the Playa Chicken as payment for outstanding debts was a bright spot, the disposal fees alone would be enormous, but when KFC bought him from us… well it is all just horrible.”

After a brief and drunken board meeting, all Church of Mez employees were laid off. All remaining cash assets are to be dumped into a desert porta-potty in the dead of night according to time honored Church tradition.

The Church of Mez, Inc. ignited the fringe transhumanist cult revolution in 1998 with the inception of the Church of Mez and is recommitted to its original mission–to bring big hair and loose morals to artists, scientists, computer professionals, and other miscreants in over 140 countries around the world.

This is a Church of Mez report from 1998, when Google launched at Burning Man and the theme was about a search engine sucking all the world’s data called “the Nebulous Entity”. They brought with them contracts for people to sell their souls; 150 did. Was this the same contract as the 1996 Helco one “Standard Short Form Contract for Purchase of One Soul” that Larry Harvey asked a lawyer to draft? Or are there multiple contracts for selling your soul floating around the Burner community?

This year’s summer vacation was the best ever. We went all the way to Venus. Sev says we ran off and joined the circus, and one of my other friends claims we went to someplace called Nevada, but I’m dead positive that we visited another planet. I’m sure ’cause the terrain was alien, the people were all different colors, there were huge and frightening creatures, and the name of the place – Black Rock City – doesn’t appear on any map at all.

We worked really hard on our vacation this year. So hard I’m amazed we all stayed friends through the vacation! We bought a rocket ship disguised as a bus and got it all gussied up for the trip. We got ourselves a big old tent and a giant scaffolding to make a tower with and packed ’em up. We nabbed lotsa couches and carpeting and loaded ’em on the roof rack to decorate with. And of course, we brought lots of t-shirts and contracts to buy people’s souls with.

Souls sure are cheap! We brought back 150 of ’em, each one purchased for a t-shirt, condom, and fortune cookie. Most of ’em we got pictures of in our book of souls, and all of ’em signed a contract as airtight as we could make it. Heck, if it weren’t for the dust storm, pretty naked girls, and other distractions, I’m sure we would have filled out all of the 300 contracts we took with us.

Our camp was down on the southern (quiet) side of town, but pretty near in towards the giant MAN that ruled this strange planet. We were right near our friend Bianca’s smut shack. Bianca loves us, we loved her from last year, and now some of us who got carried away at Bianca’s are gonna be loved in the movies, or maybe on the web. At least, we sure can’t think of any other uses for the kinds of pictures they got of us.

…That was okay though, ’cause we had less to carry back! After they burned the MAN we got all excited and burned half of our furniture, along with our neighbors the giant Pez site. Kirby and I picked up each 6 foot Pez in turn and charged out into the desert screaming “burning pez! burning pez!” and threw it onto the massive fire. Then we brought out Leo’s couch and Ethan’s futon and Nancy’s cage for the prodigal Fluffy and threw them all onto the fire screaming “burning mez! burning mez!” Now we have less stuff.

Gosh, timelines sure are hard to keep straight. ‘Cause all the burning furniture was after the MAN burned, which was after the Temple of Rudra, which was after the Nebulous Entity, which was after the Dust Storm.

The MAN was absolutely the best. Last year he shot fireworks out of his hands and feet as he burned. But his year he just exploded in a giant shower of fireworks in every possible direction like a dozen fourth of july’s, shooting sparks and fire all over the people gathered below with their giant vertical flamethrowers and flare guns and flames on chains and even car engines carried on litters by slaves. I was sure some of them were gonna be goners but I hear everyone lived. And even after all the fireworks explosions were gone the man was burning bright. So bright you couldn’t see his outstretched hands or widespread feet at all. Yes siree, he was one 30-foot ball of glowing white fire for half a minute, maybe longer. Brighter than the sun, I say. And after all that there magnesium in his heart burnt out he was burning all aflame, redly and brilliantly, still clinging to life so dearly they had to tug on his lines to bring him crashing to earth. “The MAN is gonna burn!” they were yelling on the megaphones beforehand, and burn he did! And then we danced and danced and ran around his funeral pyre till our left sides were red and burnt from his heat and we were pouring sweat into our burns, then off to the Entity and home to burn what we dared of our camp!

…If the temple was a bit staid and stable, the Nebulous Entity was anything but! We visited the Entity many a time, but it was the special night of Saturday when we got to follow in its glorious wake! We’d gotten ourselves abducted by the aliens that serve the Entity (and had abducted one ourselves for examination) and came out to find the Entity preparing to move! Imagine that 20′ tower of fluorescent sea-life, industrial lighting, strange tentacles, and forbidding sounds propelled by all its slaves across the playa! Well, needless to say we were frightened, but having just been abducted no choice was ours. We were caught in its thrall and follow we must, and glad we are to this day! The Entity is not malignant, merely alien. It is friendly, joyous, mischievous, and totally oblivious to human life. Those who remain well clear of the path of its might tentacles live to return to it again. Only those foolish enough to stand in its path as it approaches are trod upon and become fertilizer for the desert biome.

Whew, what a break from the tedious Dust Storm! We’d been holed up in the rocket ship all day with our friends Fat Man and Little Boy, seeking shelter from the punishing wind and dust that penetrates everything…Goodness, there’s so much more to tell you about but so little time! We took so many pictures early on yet stopped by Thursday so we could join in the fun around us. We learned so much about physics and even more about chemistry, from the Tesla Coil and Catapult and Funnelator (where we launched broken doll parts into the desert) and from building our camp and powering our lights and playing with our neurochemicals.

We met so many lovely people, like Brandon and Bonnie who sold us their souls and their son Bean’s soul and Bonnie’s unborn child’s soul. And our nice neighbors on either side who slept on our futons. And the pretty girl Sarah at the Fuzzy Dice camp. And a girl named Angel I beat at a game of hangman and who owes us her soul but never signed a contract (though she did give us water)…

Wow. Mom, Dad, I wanna go again next year! Only this time our camp is gonna be bigger and better and closer to center camp. We’re gonna have even more water (300 gallons was awesome – 3000 would be better!), giant art, personal radios, banners we actually hang up, a taller tower, candles we can keep lit in high wind, more strobe lights and blacklights, a higher-bandwidth process for buying souls, pamphlets on all kinds of topics, and so much more!

Love, your son, student, friend, and brother,

mez

p.s. – please tell Santa: next year I want a FIRE ENGINE so I can take it to Burning Man!

“This is a Church of Mez report from 1998, when Google launched at Burning Man and the theme was about a search engine sucking all the world’s data called “the Nebulous Entity”. They brought with them contracts for people to sell their souls; 150 did. Was this the same contract as the 1996 Helco one “Standard Short Form Contract for Purchase of One Soul” that Larry Harvey asked a lawyer to draft? Or are there multiple contracts for selling your soul floating around the Burner community?”

Where do you get that The Nebulous Entity is supposed to represent Google? It may very well, I’ve just never heard that connection. I do know that 1998 was the year Google first modified the logo with the Burning Man icon.

Google closed the office and went to Burning Man. They introduced the first ever change to their front page – a corporate logo. They used the Burning Man association to suggest they were anti-corporate, “cool” to the cyber-punks of the day.

When they came back from Burning Man, they signed the paperwork to incorporate their company. Then they could open a bank account and deposit their checks (just like in the TV show Silicon Valley).

The theme that year, the Nebulous Entity, was about “a gigantic search engine. The Nebulans themselves are part of this engine, and as integrated members of a living machine, they share a hive mind”

I don’t believe you ever answered my question about your Coincidence Threshold – the point at which your fervent belief in Coincidence Theory, could convert to Conspiracy Fact. I mean, 100? 100 sounds like a lot of coincidences, they couldn’t ALL be unrelated.

Oh I missed that in Larry’s theme essay. Ha. Yeah could very well be related, although in 1998, Sergey and Larry were small fish still. Did Larry consult with them before writing the theme sometime in late ’97 early ’98? I doubt it. Was Larry aware of Google at the time? Probably, although it wasn’t even a rising star until late ’98 at the earliest. Ask Jeeves was the top search engine then. I know this because I worked there at the time, ha. Coincidence!?

My threshold varies on a case by case basis. Mostly, I don’t immediately believe a series of related events is part of an intentional long term plan. It makes sense to me that Sergey’s and Larry’s professor wrote about a Google precursor and then hey! The two of them go on to create Google. They were clearly influenced by their professor. That happens every day. Was it Winograd’s plan all along that two of his students would go on to create something like Google? Doubtful. The CIA and DARPA have been heavily involved with Stanford for decades, which makes perfect sense because it’s one of the campuses where groundbreaking work is going on. That’s surely intentional, and when likeminded people get together to create things, spin-offs happen and relationships are formed.

So, back to The Nebulous Entity. Do I think Larry and Sergey/Larry were in cahoots? I don’t.

More than likely he was talking out of his ass. Larry tends to bloviate, sometimes lucidly and coherently, sometimes not. I don’t believe for a second he has some secret knowledge of some proto-Google running in a garage somewhere in 1986. He probably conflated the Hewlitt Packard myth, the Google timeline and Burning Man’s early years. THAT is WAY more probable than Google Cabal.

“The nebulous entity coincides with a penumbral eclipse at 2:14am
Nebulae culture is entirely information based. During the course of their evolution the Nebulans have genetically merged with a technology that is designed to gather information. The Nebulous entity, therefore, represents a fusion of technology and organic form. One may think of it as a gigantic search engine. The Nebulans themselves are a part of this engine, and as integrated members of a living machine, they share a hive mind”

The Nebulous Entity was the nerve center of an alien civilization; a mobile sculpture; a performance piece; a technological satire of our society; and a shambling mass of tentacles and bric-a-brac. A giant, post-apocalyptic pied piper, it roamed Burning Man ’98 with a sea of extraterrestrials in tow, emitting fractally structured gibberish and calling into question all notions of reality, information theory and life itself.

However, I am not responsible for the Nebulous Entity.

The Nebulans began as a story told by Larry Harvey, of an alien culture incestuously merged with its own technology, scouring the universe for new sources of information. The Entity was their info-consumption nexus, embodied by sculptor Michael Christian. At the time I heard of the project, I had been working on the use of biologically-inspired algorithms to create sound. I proposed creating a voice for the Entity.

The Nebulous Entity sound system consisted of a laptop computer running software I wrote in Matlab, driving four large speakers. Its hard drive stored over 500 samples –commercials, television, radio, and movie clips, and other sounds frequently heard in our culture (babies crying, car horns, sirens, etc.). The system also automatically collected samples from its environment through a microphone on the Entity itself. The software continuously generated fractal waveforms and used them to layer randomly-selected samples, playing them at varying speeds, forward and backward, and at multiple times.

The system ran night and day, giving rise to moments of great serendipity. One afternoon as a sudden windstorm rose, The Entity began to emit multiple copies of the dishwashing detergent tag line “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”, complete with a punctuating thunderclap, at several speeds simultaneously and at enormous volume, causing considerable amusement among the occupants of the surrounding flattened tents. Approaching an ambulance after the Burn, the Entity voiced a variety of siren sounds, attempting to communicate before it moved on.
Encountering a 32’ tall pulsating mass of tentacles, surrounded by a wild mob of glowing aliens in the middle of nowhere, belting out orgasmic cries and sped-up commercials for the Army National Guard is enough to give even the most overstimulated hipster pause. The Entity sought to annihilate preconceptions, and for those days in ‘98 it stomped them flat.

The various branches of the family seem to collaborate. This has been the philosophy since they started, the “Five Arrows” were Mayer Amschel’s 5 sons, each sent to start an empire in a different location.

From the web site of the Swiss trust, parent company of the Nevada LLC

Rothschild Trust is a group of international trust and financial services companies that operate within the Rothschild global network. The original Rothschild Trust company was established in 1954. Rothschild Trust operates in many financial centres, providing a range of independent wealth structuring and trust services for both private and corporate clients around the world. The main legal entities include Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) AG and RTS Geneva SA.

In regards of the GLC, the pathological lies CoolAid penned upon the Burning Man Journal, and upon Facebook groups, and upon other sites assimilated by the Borg, by appearance, are most different this GLC. In the place of serving CoolAid to the Burners, by appearances, they are serving CoolAid to the Burners whom attended the GLC. My belief is the awesome post of Art Budget Shenanigans had effect upon the Burners attending the GLC, and they presented numerous queries to the Borg upon these matters. The BMJ posts state of ‘radical transparency’ of the Regionals, but not of the Borg, queries upon the budget, ‘bitch’, grants towards the awesome Burners Without Borders of solely $3 thousand dollars, in addendum of other matters, of which, by appearances, were arguements within the GLC.

And, what might be the rationale of the regional representatives presenting of these queries and arguements? The Borg is making attempts to control them by utilizing free tickets, and permitting their volunteers to buy $390 dollar tickets, and the one minute management manner of kudos and then leaving, but the regional representatives must be most pissed in regards of the Borg desires to pay solely $1,000 towards each of the thirty three Piazza spaces, requiring of the regionals to pay the other near to $10,000 of costs of each of the piazza spaces, in despite of the Borg gaining near to $38 million in due of ticket sales, and the Borg hiding the details of their cash out from the representatives. In addendum of the regional representatives, and others within contract to the Borg, in the manner of metas, of whatever they might be, paying their cash for travel, and places to stay, at the GLC in the place of the Borg paying for these costs from their near to $38 million of ticket sales. In addendum of the Borg desiring to pay solely near to 2% of their near to $38 million of ticket sales in the manner of honorarium towards the awesome artists, including of towards the temple. And, of the Borg taking numerous millions of dollars of cash towards their pockets, while the regional representatives, and artists, are not permitted to pay a even small stipend towards themselves in due of their labours. The regional representatives are most deserving to be pissed in regards of these matters. My belief is might any of them, or their mates, desire to venture to the fourth floor purposed to view, and copy, the Project minutes, and of the Project consolidated financial statement of 2015, in the manner permitted in due of the Project bylaws, and in due of California law, and pen a guest post upon these matters, my belief is of that would be awesome.

Hey zos! Im sure you are following panama papers story. Seeing “nevada” and “rothschild” thrown around a lot. Does this have anything to do with the rothschilds that go to burning man? Big family, and not all are evil of course. They have been the target of fraudulent anti semitic “jews run the world” conspiracy theories for decades, but in this situation at least one of them seems to be in the mix? Any thoughts?

I’m only half Jewish. You say Jews running the world is a fraudulent conspiracy, even anti-semetic? The Jews I know are proud of it. Give credit where credit is due. There’s no shame in the achievements of Jews over the last few generations. They’ve had a lot to overcome.

It’s a big family, with fingers in many pies. I am aware of 3 Rothschilds and 4 Rockefellers who are Burners (2 of the Rockefellers have different last names, so presumably married into the clan). I am sure there are more.

David Mayer de Rothschild, the one most vocal about BM, is the youngest son of Sir Evelyn – considered by many to be the current “head” of the empire.

For all intents and purposes covenants & restrictions, we’re already in the first stage of transhumanism. It doesn’t even require a cult leader, tech itself is the leader. Just look at your sweetheart darling daughters with their noses in their smart phones at dinner – that’s the future. We’re not going to need any convincing or adherence to some ideology to line up for the brain implants that will free our hands up from our smart phones. Hand-free is the only difference.